


Pink Lemonade Mouth

by ladyofthesun



Category: Lemonade Mouth (2011), Power Rangers (2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Brief appearance of Ninja Storm, F/F, Trans Male Character, Trans Zack Taylor, Trimberly Week, Trimberly Week - Day 1, Trimberly Week - Day 4, idk how to tag, lemonade mouth au, more tags to be added as I update, slight ableist language but it's very brief and very wrong, there's a little language
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-30
Updated: 2018-09-27
Packaged: 2018-12-09 00:29:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11657841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladyofthesun/pseuds/ladyofthesun
Summary: A Lemonade Mouth Au that was meant to be for Trimberly Week but who knows when I'll update





	1. Chapter 1

 Trini was fed up.

 She stood in the middle of her room, strumming her guitar, surrounded by what seemed like hundreds of boxes that she had yet to unpack and reflected on her life these past few years, as she did every time her family moved to a new house.

 In the beginning she had been hopeful, perhaps she would find some good friends here, or at least, that’s what her mother had told her. She had stayed in that small city for almost a year and a half before she had to move. The three friends that she had made quickly lost touch.

 In this new school, her mother was hopeful that Trini would find a boyfriend. “You’re such a gorgeous young lady, mija. The boys would be crazy to not want you.” Trini nodded along to her mother’s compliments, despite the funny feeling in her tummy.

 And she did get along with her peers in that school, they all seemed nice, but they didn’t really stay at that school long enough for her to make real friends. Within four months the freshly unpacked boxes were once again repackaged, and put into the moving van. Her two brothers had gotten to the age where they could run around, and were instead running to their toys in order to pull them apart and begin putting them back together. It seemed that they had inherited the genius gene from her parents, the one she supposed she missed out on.

 She could sometimes feel her parents’ disappointed gaze whenever they thought she wasn’t looking, but she could tell, and it made her feel like shit. She knew she wasn’t as smart as the rest of her family, but she did well in school, so it was fine.

 Until her brothers started school in the next place they lived.

 This was the longest that they’d stayed in one place, a total of three years, and her brothers had started school on the eve of the second year. They had stayed in kindergarten for a grand total of two weeks before being moved up into the second grade. Her parents had been _just so proud_ but she could, once again, see them look up quickly and looking back down once they realise that she can see them.

 She didn’t mind as much after a while though. She started drifting away from her parents, but got closer to the people at school. She hoped that they would stay there for a while, her 15 year old mind believed that, since her brothers had settled in so well, her parents would think harder about moving their family again.

 

* * *

 

 At 15 years old Trini had her first kiss. It happened at her first proper high school party, everyone got drunk off of stolen beers since it was the first time they actually drank anything. Trini had had the same amount of beers as her friends though and she didn’t feel anything, so she was sure everyone was faking it to look cool.

 They were all sitting in a circle on the floor since apparently they were too cool to sit on the comfy sofas like _normal people_ . For some reason, these “drunk” teenagers thought it would be _just so hilarious_ to play seven minutes in heaven, even though they all knew that nothing would actually happen, considering that they were surrounded by half the grade and the “closet” in question was actually just the kitchen pantry. Animal Crackers weren’t the most romantic things in the world.

 The thing about seven minutes in heaven though, was that the number of girls playing, heavily outweighed the number of boys playing, since they were too afraid that the bottle would land on them and another boy, and that would be _gay._

 Trini didn’t have this problem.

 She knew that nothing would happen in the pantry despite the gender of the person.

 The first few tries had been boring. The bottle picked two people, everyone else hooted and hollered until they actually went into the pantry, then it became silent. Of course, a couple of people tried to see what was happening through the gaps in between the door and the wall, but the hostess of the party, a pretty girl called Hailey, quickly shut that down.

 Trini started to chat to the girl next to her halfway through the second pair. She didn’t ask her name, and after five minutes, she thought it would be too awkward, so she started to try and end the conversation and escape the game.

 It was Hailey’s turn next however, and just before she could make her escape, the bottle that they had been spinning landed on her. Before any hooting could start Hailey glared at the people on the ground and stuck out a hand to Trini with a smile.

 She led her into the pantry and quickly shut the door behind her, standing in front of the gap so that no one could see in.

 “So, ummm…” Trini tried to start a conversation, realising just now that she was going to have to spend seven minutes in here, alone, with a very pretty girl.

 Trini had always believed she was straight. According to her mother, it was the normal option, everyone was straight, unless they chose to be different. Of course, her mother hardly talked about this kind of stuff to Trini, she was too swallowed in work to talk about anything with her anymore. But Trini got the gist of it.

 However, standing in front of this girl, a very slight buzz from the limited amounts of beer she had drank that night, she couldn’t help but think to herself, _“God, she’s just so pretty”_.

 “Nice, uh, party.” Trini offered with a smile once she realised that nothing had been said for 30 seconds. _Did time always go this slow? Or was it just today?_

 Whatever it was, it made the time between Trini’s words and Hailey’s response seem like ages. And when she did finally respond, it was with two words.

 “Not really.” said in a completely monotone voice, not allowing Trini to further the conversation. Trini waited another couple of minutes in the silence, trying to avert her eyes from the girl that was directly in front of her, unfortunately, there wasn’t really any other place for her to look unless she turned around, and that would just be awkward.

 Trini opened her mouth to ask something else, _anything else_ , when Hailey started to speak. “Is this your first time playing Seven Minutes?”

 This was Trini’s first high school party, not that she was going to tell Hailey that. “Umm, yeah, I guess.”

 “Have you ever kissed a girl before, Trini?” Hailey started stepping closer to Trini, completely getting rid of any personal space that had previously existed. Trini looked up, shaking her head. “Have you ever kissed _anyone_ before, Trini?”

 Trini was speechless.

 How did Hailey see right through her?

 Before she could reply, her lips were covered with Haileys. She had heard kissing was incredible, that her first kiss would be life changing, but all Trini could register was the taste of beer, something that was a little stronger, and oddly enough, pomegranates. She guessed that that last thing was Hailey’s lipstick, and was impressed at it’s ability to stay on for so long.

 She only realised that a pretty girl was kissing her after analysing what kind of lipstick the girl in question was using, after that she started getting into it a bit more. However, just as the kiss was about to deepen, there was a loud knock on the door.

 “Time’s up! Hope you enjoyed it!” there were giggles on the other side of the door

 Hailey’s lips separated from Trini’s, her eyes fluttered open in time to see Hailey wink at her before turning around and leaving.

 So maybe Trini wasn’t as straight as she thought she was.

 She wasn’t exactly sure what she was yet, the day after the party she spent a while just googling different sexualities, but none of them seemed to fit her. She decided that she didn’t like labels.

 She went to school like normal the next Monday, went to all her lessons, ate with the few friends she had at lunch, and was walking out to her mom’s car when someone blocked her path. She looked up to see blonde hair covered by a snap back, framing kaleidoscopic eyes, looking at her intensely.

 Hailey.

 “Listen, about the other night, I know I was drunk and all, but I didn’t mean to steal your first kiss.” she seemed genuinely apologetic, leading Trini to relax slightly.

 “Don’t worry about it.” she nodded and moved out of the way, allowing Trini to hop into her mother’s car, only to be faced with the questioning glare of June Kwan-Gomez.

 “What did that girl mean? You had your first kiss and you didn’t tell me? Your first kiss was with a girl? Did she force you to kiss her?” Before the questions could get any darker Trini cut her off.

 “No mom! God, it wasn’t like that.” Trini sighed, leaning back onto her seat.

 She risked a quick glance at her mother to see that she was sitting stiffly, hands gripping the steering wheel, eyes looking forward, practically unblinking.

 That evening she heard her mother screaming at her dad about how they had raised Trini wrong, obviously trying to hold back from using the actual words.

 Trini fell asleep crying into her pillow.

 A week later they moved here. Angel Grove. Small town with a small community. Trini’s mom knew what a small community meant, any and all gossip would make it back to her within a week. June was nothing if not resourceful.

 So yeah, Trini was fed up. And that’s all she was thinking as her mother drove her up to Angel Grove High, and introduced her to the smarmy principal.

 

* * *

 

 Kimberly Hart had a good life. Sure her dad was a little overprotective and her parents were _really_ strict, but that just came with her Indian lineage.

 And besides, she could be sneaky. Her dad didn’t need to know about everything in her life, as long as she was getting good grades and didn’t get in trouble. So she hid a few aspects of her life from him, such as her boyfriend, and the late night concerts that she snuck out of the house to go to.

 But she was fine. It was a good life.

 That’s what she said to herself as she quickly got changed in the girls bathroom before school could start, hoping that none of the cheerleaders would come in and catch her in the act. She just had to be quick. It was a practiced routine, one that she had been performing since middle school.

 She folded her clothes, putting them in her bag, before reapplying the lipstick that she had wiped off in front of her father while in the car, readjusted her dress one last time, picked up her violin, and walked out of the bathroom. Mr Zordon’s voice blared across the speakers of Angel Grove High as she walked past the lockers, she had stopped listening to the announcements a while ago, they were always the same anyway.

 Just as she was almost clear, a voice stopped her, “Hey!” she turned her head, a smile already plastered on her face, “There you are…”

 “Hey, Tommy, you scared me.” her boyfriend of two years smiled, glancing down as he moved closer to her.

 “I’ve been looking all over for you,” he grasped her hand loosely, swinging it back and forth, “So, uh, the band and I, we’re gonna ditch this morning, and uh, head on over to Rita’s and practice for the Halloween Bash,” Kim scoffed slightly, “Wanna come?”

 “Sure I’d love-” before she could finish her own sentence, Kim’s brain reminded her of what her father would say if he ever found out, “I can’t.”

 “What?” the word was dragged out slightly, “Kim, we barely see each other anyway, _and_ I’m rehearsing with _Green With Envy_ all weekend, _and_ I’ve got soccer practice too. Please? For me?”

 Kim furrowed her brows before glancing behind her at the intercom that had gone silent a few moments earlier, their principals voice no longer serving as background noise. “Zordon? Don’t worry about him, he’s with the new girl all day.”

 The new girl in question was sitting with her mother, watching the principal pace up and down before moving behind his obnoxiously large desk with a large picture of his face mounted onto the wall sitting behind him. Trini kept glancing around at all of the sports trophies littering his shelves as her mom talked to him about the apparent “reclusive personality” that she seemed to have, as if they weren’t a result of Trini’s relationship with her mother. Before she could be analysed by Principal Zordon however, the receptionist came in with a tall boy trailing behind her, a smirk looking too at home on his face.

 “I’m sorry sir, I know you told me not to interrupt, but you weren’t answering your intercom and you told me to bring Mr Taylor to you as soon as I find him.” she looked like it was a grave sin that she was interrupting their great leader.

 “No, I understand, Mr Taylor, I would tell you to stand outside but I’m not sure that you would stay there. I apologise for this Miss Kwan.”

 “Kwan-Gomez.” her mother reminded him.

 “Yes, sorry, Kwan-Gomez.” Zordon didn’t truly seem apologetic as he dismissed her mother and moved over to Mr Taylor. The boy in question was was wearing ripped jeans, some very heavy looking shoes, and a black shirt that had the words “Question Authority” looking like it was spray painted onto it, the messy spiked hair and mischievous look in his eyes was what truly completed the look.

 “Mr Taylor here is one of the more, _irresponsible_ students, please do not let your view of him affect the school as a whole,” Mr Zordon told them before motioning the boy to the back of the room, June took this opportunity to check up on her colleagues instead of talking to her daughter. “Mr Taylor, first of all, this school has a reputation to uphold, and I’m afraid that that shirt does not fit into it. You shall have to borrow one of the school jackets from reception.” The boy rolled his eyes, “Secondly, you have been skipping a few too many lessons here and in _my school_ , students, respect the rules.”

 He started moving around the room, moving any specs of dust that were visible on any of his certificates on the wall, making his voice louder to emphasise his point, “Written, or unwritten.” As he said this Trini noticed an interesting image on one of the security camera screens, letting out a slight chuckle, causing both Zordon and the boy to look over at her. In retaliation, she raised her eyebrows and motioned to the screen.

 Principal Zordon turned around to see one of his star football players leading another pupil out of the school, both of them glancing around for teachers, unaware that they were being watched.

 

* * *

 

 “Please don’t call my dad! He blows a fuse if he finds out that I was alone with a boy for a second, how do you think he’ll react if you tell him I skipped class with one?” Kim’s eyes were wide with fright, looking pleadingly up at the man with a phone already in his hand.

 He considered her for a moment, “This is your first infraction,” she nodded slightly, “You _are_ on the honour role, a straight A student,” they looked at each other for a moment before he smiled, “I won’t call your father.”

 This led Kim to close her eyes in relief, letting out a breath, “Thank you.”

 “This time.” her face fell, “But if I _ever_ catch you skipping class again,” he started scribbling on a pad of paper.

 “You won’t, I promise.” he tore off the detention slip and presented it to Kim. She nodded at him once again before moving to pick up her bag and leave his office in order to meet Tommy who had been waiting outside.

 “So…?” He asked her, she held up the slip.

 “Detention.”

 “Damn, that sucks.”

 “Yeah it does, but my dad will never find out and hey, at least we’ll be together, right?” He looked away from her nervously, “ _Right?_ ”

 “Well, Kim, you see, with football practice, and the big game coming up and all, Zordon actually let me off with a warning.”

 Kim’s jaw dropped, “A _warning?_ ”

 “Yeah, but, uh, I’ll see you at lunch okay?” He lightly touched her elbow, grinning. She nodded at him, allowing him to get going and reach his lesson, or more likely skip that successfully and go to Rita’s house for _Green With Envy_ rehearsals.

 “Unbelievable.” she muttered, rolling her eyes before leaving.

 

* * *

 

 The large projector in the gym was playing an ad for _Turbo Blast_ , their football team's main sponsor. The sound was blaring out of every speaker that the company had installed, making the bleachers vibrate, the flashing images in the ad didn’t go well with the slow motion action shots. The whole thing made Trini’s head hurt.

 She didn’t even want to be here, in all her other schools, assemblies were optional, so she assumed she could skip this one too. Unfortunately Zordon had caught her trying to sneak away and had given her detention for it, along with a “little meeting” to talk about her choices, and she _still_ had to go to the assembly, which she could tell hardly anyone was actually enjoying.

 It finally finished, allowing the lights to turn back on and Principal Zordon to turn around and face the slight applause coming from the students.

 “Welcome to our first assembly in our new gym, generously funded, by our school sponsor, _Turbo Blast: Drink! Of! Champions!_ ” Zordon exclaimed, putting a lot of expression behind his clearly rehearsed words. Once again, only a few students clapped, mainly those that played sports, and therefore, directly benefited from the donations.

 There was a pause in his speech in order to allow the local news station to take a few pictures. Trini was watching her new principal with a strange look on her face, slightly bemused, when a couple of cheerleaders came up to her.

 “Hey!” The blonde one said. Trini replied, slightly shocked, maybe there were some friendly ones at this school. “Why don’t you uh, find another seat?” Well, there goes that hope, a boy in a letterman jacket behind them chuckled.

 “Why don’t you make me?” Trini replied, before she could stop herself.

 The boy behind her let out another “Ooooh,” this one longer than the first, the cheerleaders’ faces fell.

 A bleached blonde girl, in another letterman’s jacket behind them stood up and started moving people away from her, before pulling the arm of the cheerleader, making her sit down in their place, “Just ignore her.” she said.

 The cheerleader called her a freak as she huffed and sat down, causing Trini to grin despite herself. The boy in the jacket from earlier moved to the seat in front of him, so he was beside Trini, she looked at him and realised that it was the guy that had crashed her meeting with Zordon that morning.

 “Hi, I’m Zack by the way.” he said, holding out a hand, she ignored him, choosing instead to look at the principal, now talking about how their students should stand out, “Not a talker, eh? It’s okay, I remember your name from earlier, Didi, right? I have such a good memory.” fucking hell, this boy was annoying.

 Almost as annoying as their principal, who was now talking about having _empowered s_ _tudents_ , ones that take _risks_.Trini heard Zack scoff and turned slightly to give him a “what can you do?” look, however, she grew slightly worried as his disbelieving look became a smile.

 He looked at her, a large grin overtaking his face, before looking back and quietly addressing Zordon, “You want empowered students? Then you’re gonna get them.” Trini’s eyes widened as she saw him stand up and climb onto the bench, undoing the buttons on his jacket before turning around.

 “My shirt? My decision.” Trini straightened up, looking around at the students telling him to sit down, “You can’t take away my personal choices, okay? You can’t let your school do that!” he was speaking to the rest of the students now. “You’ve got to be heard!” Well, he was getting more applause than their dear Principal. As he kept rallying the students Trini started to smile, maybe he wasn’t so bad after all.

 

* * *

 

Trini walked out of Zordon’s office after assembly, he had basically just talked at her for ten minutes about how, even though it was her first day of school, she couldn’t be slacking off. They had a reputation to uphold, didn’t she know?

She shook her head as she walked past a group of cheerleaders practising what seemed like part of their routines, it seemed like unless you were associated with a sport, you were invisible at this school. Not that Trini minded that, she preferred staying invisible, she promised that this would be her only detention at this school. 

Speaking of detention, apparently, it was held in the basement, and there was an elevator leading to only that floor. As soon as she stepped out of the said elevator, she was already lost. Luckily a girl that was a fair bit taller than her took pity on her, seeing her confused look she chuckled and came up to her, carrying what looked like a box full of old dvds. 

“You look lost,” she said, her light blue eyes crinkling with slight laughter.

“Yeah I’m just-” she was cut off before she could say anything else as the girl found the detention slip in her hand.

“Detention, huh? Follow me.” she tilted her head slightly, but followed her nonetheless. 

“What even happens down here?” she had noticed the crowded nature of the place, people running back and forth.

“This place? We call it the underground.” as they walked around, she started naming all the clubs that were around them, shoved into little rooms, “Anything that doesn’t fit the whole “look” that Principal Zordon is going for, get’s shoved down here. Well, this is my stop, AV Club.”

Trini was confused, “So you’re telling me, that all of these clubs have just been moved down here? Cause they’re not sporty enough?”

“Yeah, basically. Detention is down the hall, I’m Caro in case you need anything by the way.” She winked at Trini hurrying off to correct her friends doing something or another to an old TV, leaving Trini to walk down the hall by herself.

Where she found a lemonade machine.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So like, it's been 11 months but it's Trimberly week so here

Kimberly Hart liked to think that she was popular.

Sure she wasn’t a cheerleader. Not after she had been made to drop out of her promising gymnastics career halfway through 8th grade because her parents thought it best she focus on high school. But she was still recognised by the majority of students, mainly due to her boyfriend yes, but also before that, as she had been friends with many of the girls that had now made it onto varsity cheer.

So yes, she was popular, despite the overly strict parents that barely let her do anything, she was friendly to basically everyone, always let people borrow her notes, and was an all around good girl. Meaning, of course, that she had never been in a detention in her whole life.

“The rules in here are simple. No eating, no drinking, no sleeping, no talking, no tapping, no texting. You break a rule, l add another day of detention. Are we clear? Great.” Kim was not planning on adding any days to the detention she had attained, but the music teacher was, how some people would describe as, eccentrically strict. Their real name was Alex Pharms or Mx Pharms but those who had them as a teacher had seen “AlPha” written on their schedule and had thus donned the teacher the nickname of Alpha.

Kim, while being classically trained in the violin, had never had a lesson with Alpha, choosing instead to fill her schedule with AP classes and have violin as an extracurricular with a separate teacher on the side, or rather, her father had chosen. Therefore, she hadn’t had time to know how to act around them and decided to just stay quiet as she looked over her fellow band of misfits.

The first figure she recognised was Jason Scott, also one of the more popular people in the school, or, he had been at least. There had been a large scandal involving him and a couple other members of the football team which led to them having to cut him from the team and lose the next game they had been in, ruining the perfect season they had been planning on having. This led to Tommy cutting ties with Jason and therefore, so had Kimberly, which she was fine with, considering that she had barely talked to him much anyway. He was currently slumped down in his chair, looking every inch the broody star that fell from grace, seemingly ignoring everyone around him.

The boy closest to him, on the other side of Kim, was tall, evident even though he was sitting down while spinning a drumstick around his fingers with concentration, though he seemed relaxed as if this was calming him. She had heard from Amanda and the other cheerleaders talking about him that he was “a bit funny”, and for some reason, Kim didn’t think they meant this as a compliment. However, Billy Cranston seemed nice enough and had the same can of lemonade that she had bought herself, though she had thrown hers away before she came into the room.

Then there were the people either side of her.

They both looked as though they had stepped out of a diverse Hot Topic catalogue, the boy was scribbling into a notebook that, from what she could see, didn’t seem to have any lines, colour, or order, every inch of the blank pages being covered by rough ink sketches or words scrawled around them. The boy himself seemed like an accurate representation of exactly what you would expect the owner of the notebook to look like. Messy hair that seemed to go in every direction, eyes darting about the room, taking in every detail, and a slight smirk present on his face. Though she had seen this boy around school before, it had almost never been in lessons, and almost always following a teacher in the direction of the principal's office with his hands in his pockets, backpack slung over only one shoulder and a large grin to anyone who he caught staring.

But the person that really intrigued Kimberly was the girl sitting next to her, as Kim had never seen her around before. She has heard of the new girl from Tommy, earlier that day in fact, and had to assume that this was her. She had a very obviously laid-back attitude, though she kept tugging her beanie, as though she wished she could yank it down to her neck and ignore the rest of the world, or, at least drown out Alpha’s tirade on the school. Kim found herself staring at the girl, as if she wanted to commit her face to memory, thankfully she knew how to be subtle, and made sure that anyone else would think she was just playing with her hair.

Kimberly was half listening to Alpha as she did this but then her ears picked up on something she wasn’t expecting. “We're gonna clean up around here. We're gonna unpack, and we're gonna turn this storage room into a music room.” They started throwing around rags and other cleaning supplies to the wide-eyed surprise of the students, an air of despair hanging around their voice before it morphed into anger as dirty water dripped from the ceiling into a bucket on the floor.

“That is it.” Alpha said with large hand motions, “I am gonna give Zordon a piece of my mind, and while I do, I want you guys to just start cleaning up or something around here.” They stormed out of the door, slamming it behind them, causing Kim to jump slightly, tearing her eyes fully away from the new girl, she picked up her cloth and spray bottle and moved towards the other half of the room, where boxes were stacked all over the place.

“They can’t make us clean,” she turned at the feminine voice, as there was only one person that could have said it, “It’s cruel and unusual punishment.” the disgust in her voice was palpable, scoffing as she leant against the desk, Kim realised how short she was as she rolled her eyes, making the act more endearing.

“Welcome to High School.” said the boy whose name she still hadn’t found, he held his arms wide and sent Kim a devilish smirk once he caught her looking, causing her to blush and turn her head away.

“This school stinks.” the disgust was obvious in the new girls’ face, and Kim sympathised, but on the other hand, this was her first detention, and she could not get caught chatting with the other delinquents when the rules clearly told her not to, not if she wanted it to stay as her only one.

“Can you guys just do what Alpha asked and be quiet? Okay? I'm not getting another detention because of you people.” she turned around quickly, rag in her hand as she started to wipe down a random globe, missing the new girl and the other boy’s glancing at each other, rolling their eyes at the princess, before grabbing a spray bottle each.

Jason Scott had moved to the other instruments, the keys from his newly repaired truck spinning around his pointer finger as he ran his other hand over a line of guitar cases. The sound of the spinning keys seemed to attract Billy Cranston’s eyes, as he let out a breath, shoulders relaxing slightly, and started drumming his fingers against the desk, the timing similar to the shift of the keys still swinging around Jason’s finger.

Kim glanced around as Billy didn’t look like he was going to stop anytime soon, the drumming creating a small beat which caused Jason to stop spinning his keys and instead start throwing and catching them, matching the beat further. The other two grinned at each other before the boy used his bottle to join in, spraying in time with the girls’ claps.

Kim turned her head once she heard the steady drumming stop, only to see Billy beginning to stand up with a pair of drumsticks in his hand, tapping against each other to keep the rhythm going. The other boy put his spray bottle down, picking up a large cello instead before starting to pluck the strings, creating a melody that complimented Billy now on the drums as well as Jason, who had found a xylophone above a keyboard.

The new girl stopped her clapping as she reached over for a guitar, waiting for a second before joining the piece and looking at Kim, who had started moving around the room, trying fruitlessly to get some stuff clean. Before she realised what she was doing, her mouth started creating sounds, and she was suddenly singing words to a song she had written long ago, words that had never left paper before but for some reason seemed to work.

She kept singing as she moved around the room, while the rest of those in detention kept playing in the area free from clutter. Kim saw why that may have been a good decision once she reached up to bat away a cobweb, stumbled slightly, and ended up knocking over the line of guitar cases Jason had ignored earlier.

The others started laughing at her, the new girl’s face breaking out into a grin as her hand left her guitar to grab onto Kimberly’s, pulling her into the centre, which Kim quickly stepped out of, choosing instead to stand next to the new girl and awkwardly dancing and oh god she’s making such a fool of herself and why is she doing that with her shoulders and still singing? Nevertheless, she didn’t feel like she could stop now.

She moved away from the girl, finding a pair of Alpha’s glasses and putting them on, imitating the wild movements the teacher made, causing the girl to throw a ball of paper at her, still grinning. She put down the glasses and instead picked up a purple feathered boa, deciding to wrap it around the cello boy’s neck, clapping his overdramatic playing before moving on to Jason, finding a Viking helmet and propping it onto his head. She spotted a bright red cowboy hat sitting behind Billy, too far for her to reach so instead she motioned towards it, causing him to start drumming with one hand as he fixed it onto his head.

Lastly, she picked up a pair of fluorescent pink sunglasses and hid them behind her back before the other girl could notice. The boy in the boa behind her started sniggering as she advanced towards her target, a smirk on her face as the other girl raised her eyebrows, looking as though she was trying to stay cool. Once she got close enough, Kim quickly put the sunglasses on her face, making both Billy and Jason chuckle at the reaction Kim got.

She moved away again, finding odder and odder objects around the room, including a skeleton which ended up losing its arm. On the other hand, it made a great microphone.

They were all laughing and having fun, dancing around with each other, though Kimberly tended to focus on the new girl. Something about the girl seemed to make all this easier, Kim could ignore her stage fright when she looked over at the only other girl in the room, she felt calm, like she wouldn’t be judged. The girl was looking back at her, laughter in her eyes as she bit down on her lip, still strumming the guitar.

As Kim sang the last few lines of the song, she moved closer to the other girl, seeing the boys glance at each other out of the corner of her eye, but her gaze was held by the smaller girls eyes as Kim finished the song, letting out a few short gasps as the other girl finished shortly after her. They were all frozen in wonder for a few moments before Kim heard a voice from behind the other girl.

“Oh shit, umm I’m so sorry, we’ll clean this up I-” Kim’s eyes widened in fear as she turned around to see who Jason was talking to, only to be met with the short figure of Alpha, standing with their mouth slightly open, one hand on their hip the other one in a stop position, trying to cut Jason off.

Billy tried to continue, “We just kind of-”

“Shh. Shhh. I need to think, let me think.”

Alpha dropped their head down, staring at the floor as they all looked at each other before Kim quickly put down the skeleton arm and moved to her seat, apologising to Alpha as she went past, only for the music teacher to make a shut up motion with their hand.

Kim sat down as the new girl took the strap of the guitar off from around her neck, placing it down as quietly as she could while staring at Kim with wide eyes. Kim shrugged before freezing up as Alpha’s head came up quickly, spinning around to look at her.

“You. Kimberly, you-” the teacher walked towards her desk before clapping their hands together in glee, “You, have a beautiful voice!” Kim blinked in surprise as Alpha span around once again to look at the other students, “And your band, it- it’s a gift!”

“We’re not a band.” the new girl said as she sat down, next to Kim once again.

“Yeah, we don’t even know each other.” The hot topic boy walked around Alpha’s desk to find his way to the seat on Kim’s other side.

“Oh come on, you were meant to play together.” The students all glanced at each other in doubt before looking back at Alpha, “You don’t have a moment like that and just ignore it!”

Kim saw the other girl shrug out of the corner of her eye, making a small smile grace her lips.

“People they, they need to hear you. Shoot, that’ll show Zordon,” Alpha chuckled before a light appeared behind their eyes, “That’ll show Zordon!” They shrieked in delight, causing the others to jump up in surprise.

“That’s it! Rising Star!” Kim’s shoulders relaxed once again as she let out a sigh, sliding down in her chair.

“Rising what?” the other girls’ voice asked in confusion.

Kim repeated the title, “Rising Star” as if it would help her understand any more.

“It’s a talent competition, the winner gets a record deal.” Billy supplied.

“And some serious airtime,” Zack said before he starts humming the theme tune, Jason immediately joins in, supplying the corny lyrics, as Billy starts beatboxing from the seat in between them.

Alpha snaps their fingers, “You see? Just think, you can show everyone around here, that sport isn’t the only thing that matters, so, Trini, you in?” they moved forward to the new girl’s desk, only for Trini to raise her brows and shrug.

“Pass.”

“What?” Alpha looked surprised.

“It’s ridiculous!” Alpha rolled their eyes before moving onto Kim, looking at her hopefully.

“I don’t sing.”

“Uhh, we just heard you sing.”

“Okay, but like that wasn’t really singing. That was just a bit of fun, in front of a crowd? With everyone judging? I can’t do that.” Kim looked over at Trini, singing with the others had felt amazing, but she knew what her parents would say, “And anyway, I- I can’t- between my AP classes and all the extracurriculars my dad has be doing, I-” she shook her head.

Alpha was losing steam quickly, they turned their head, “Zack?”

“Umm I can’t, I got- uhh stuff.”

“Stuff,” Zack nodded, “Okay, fine, what about you?” She looked at Jason.

“I don’t think me being in the band would make it very popular, count me out.” his arms were crossed in front of his chest, obviously he wouldn’t hear any further.

“Well, I guess that counts me out then, huh? Can’t really enter the competition with a one-man band, you know, unless you’re thinking of starting a solo career? Which I’d be happy to consider.” Jason cut off Billy’s rambling.

“Guys, _Green With Envy_ is entering, we wouldn’t stand a chance.”

“He’s right,” Kim chimed in “They’re really good.”

“How good can they be?” Trini’s voice was suspicious.

“If they’re as good as you say, why should we even bother?” Zack said, ignoring the others and only looking at Alpha.

“Because you said it yourself, you deserve to be heard.”

 

* * *

 

 

After helping out the freshman with some volunteer tutoring after school, Kim headed home. Her bag was heavy with school work, and she kept tugging it back up until it was taken away from her by her boyfriend, who suddenly appeared by her side.

“Hey! I didn’t see you much today, is practice over?” Kim asked Tommy, who put the arm that wasn’t holding her bag around her shoulders.

“Nah, coach told us he’s running a bit late, and I saw you struggling a bit, so what kind of boyfriend would I be if I didn’t help?” Kim smiled and looked down, a blush beginning to creep along her cheeks. But something was tugging at her mind as they walked along in slight silence, Tommy nodding to people he recognised every so often.

She wasn’t completely comfortable.

Kim used to think that it was just how she was as a person. She was never really comfortable around her family or any of her other friends, so she thought that this was how she was just destined to be. But that afternoon with the others in detention had changed her. Never had she felt so free when around other people, she felt as though she could fully relax when she was looking in Trini’s eyes, Tommy’s arms didn’t provide the same comfort.

She looked up at Tommy, studying his face. He was good-looking, he was kind, he made her feel liked, but Trini had made her feel more like herself in those few minutes than she had ever felt in her whole life. Tommy noticed her looking up at him and smiled at her, causing her to smile back on reflex.

“What’s up?” Kim shook her head.

“Nothing, I’m just, I’m just thinking.”

Once they were a couple of blocks away from the school, Tommy leant down to give her a kiss, before looking apologetic, “I gotta go now, before coach finds out I ever left. I’ll call you tonight?” Kim nodded, smiling as he handed her the bag before running back to the school.

She had some thinking to do.

But as soon as she stepped into her bedroom her phone chimed, it was a new number. Trini’s. The girls had exchanged numbers after detention, as they waited to grab a can of lemonade each. She noticed that it wasn’t a direct text, but was instead part of a new group, she already had Jason’s number saved from his days on the football team, but the other two she assumed that she could figure out the other two.

Fluke or Destiny? We need to talk.

 

* * *

 

They decided to meet up at Zedd’s Pizza the next day, just after school and they all gathered around a circular table. Trini and Zack sat next to each other, Kim on Zack’s other side, Jason next to her, and Billy in between Jason and Trini, his back facing the wall.

After Tori, the assistant manager brought out their large pizza and put it in the middle of the table, Zack and Trini looked at each other before each taking a slice. Kim furtively took her own slice, trying to make eye contact with Trini, who refused to look at her.

Once Zack finished his first slice, much quicker than everyone else, he clapped his hands, “So, Trini signed us up for Rising Star this morning.”

Kim’s eyes widened as she looked at Trini as if to telepathically ask her what she was thinking, “We’re not experienced enough!”

“Which is why I signed us up for the Halloween Bash.” Zack took another slice of pizza at the same time as Billy, who looked up at him in surprise.

“How did you pull that off?”

“It’s wonderful what the principal will agree to when his problem student has found a creative outlet to channel his energy into.” He wiggled his eyebrows as he bit down on the new slice.

Jason sighed, “Goofing around in detention doesn’t make us a band.”

“So we’ll practice.” Trini looked at them all, “What happened in detention, I’ve never felt something like that before. It was powerful. I’ve been to three schools in three years, I don’t want to always be the new girl, Zack doesn’t just wanna be remembered as the guy who was never there, Jason, I’m sure you don’t want everyone to think about your screw up every time you’re mentioned.” Jason absentmindedly rubbed his knee, where Kim knew he had injured himself a few months ago.

Zack turned to Billy, “You have a set of drums right?” Billy nodded, “See?” He turned to Kim “I didn’t even know that.”

Kim rolled her eyes, “What are we even gonna play?”

“You could write our songs.” Kim’s head snapped into Trini’s direction, “You wrote the one from yesterday right?” Kim nodded, “You have a real talent, and no number of AP classes are gonna show that as well as this will.” Trini looked at Kim again in the way that made her stomach feel all funny, she furrowed her brows before looking down at her lap.

“Well, we can’t play the Bash, _Green With Envy_ is playing.”

“And we are opening for them.” Trini looked at Kim and then Jason, pleading, “Zack and I have already decided, but we need you guys.”

“I’m in.” Billy’s voice sounded from behind his slice of pizza. He had been watching the conversation, weighing up the pros and cons the whole time.

Kim sighed as she saw a couple of cheerleaders pass, barely glancing at her, “Just one practice, if it works, great, if not, I’m out.” Trini smiled at her, making Kim smile back, but not on reflex, she felt as though she wanted to.

They all turned to look at Jason, who rolled his eyes and then dug a quarter out of his back pocket, “Okay, you know what? Let’s leave it up to fate. Heads we do it, tails I’m out.”

The others all looked at each other before nodding. Jason flipped the coin in the air, Kim held her breath as she watched it come down, and they all put their heads over the table, able to see the outcome clearly.

Maybe it really was fate.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Their first practice doesn't start how they'd hoped, and finding a band name is proving to be a tough decision. Nothing like an old-fashioned school cafeteria fight to get the creative juices flowing

Maybe fate was a bitch.

Zack didn’t think this band was going to be perfect on their first try, but after what happened in detention, he sure hoped they would sound better than, whatever they were doing now.

“Come on, Billy. It’s a simple four-four beat.” Zack spun around to look at the boy, demonstrating on his guitar, “It's B to B-flat, back to B, then an F-sharp. Are you even trying?” He saw Billy look at Jason with wide eyes, they seem to have bonded in the time between detention and their first practice, and Jason murmured something to Billy in a low, comforting voice. Regret filled Zack instantly, “I’m sorry, I know you’re trying. Let’s just go again. Ready?” Billy nodded, taking a deep breath and they all played from the beginning, Trini starting, then Billy, then Zack, then Jason.

Or, that’s how it was meant to go. 

They can’t seem to fall into place like they had a couple of days ago, causing Trini to stop playing in frustration, “Okay, this isn’t working!”

Zack looked around, everyone seemed to be thinking the same thing, from the looks on their faces, “We’ll get it. We just need to keep practising-”

“No! Zack, we’ve been practising. What we did in detention was amazing, but it was a one-time thing.” Trini sighed, “I’m done here.” She started to pack her guitar away.

“So that’s it?” Zack was pissed, “You’re just gonna walk away? What happened to not always wanting to be the new girl? What happened to wanting to be heard?” 

“What happened to being invisible? Cause from what I remember you told us you were never in school anyway. Why the sudden need to be somebody?” Zack deflated instantly. He didn’t know how to answer the questions Trini threw at him. He nodded his head and sat down, all the fight had left him. After all, none of them knew the real reason he had been wanting to fill his time with new things. None of them knew that his mom was getting worse, and the doctors were getting less and less hopeful. None of them knew that the time in detention had been the most carefree Zack had been in a long time.

Trini looked slightly ashamed, but she picked up her things and began to walk away. The now quiet boy saw Billy stand up to look at the others, taking in Zack’s defeated position, Kim looking back and forth between the group and Trini, and Jason, who was looking back at him. Billy looked worried, which only increased Zack’s guilt, but caused Jason to start playing, encouraging Billy to sit down and join him.

Kim took a deep breath, looking back to the other boys another time, before taking the mic out of its stand and walking towards Trini, who had paused as soon as Jason had begun playing. And suddenly, it was as though the last however many minutes hadn’t happened. They seemed to fall into each other. Kim began singing a different song to the one they had tried to practice, but this one seemed easier, allowing them to let go of everything, and just feel the music.

Kim had taken Trini’s bag off the smaller girl’s shoulder, carrying it on her arm as they held each other’s hands, Trini allowing Kim to lead her back to her place, letting Kim push the guitar into the place where the girl’s hand had just been. She caught Zack’s eye, looking apologetic, but he just smiled at her and stood up once again, strumming lightly on the bass in his hands as Kim started to move around them, her voice getting louder and louder as she gained confidence. 

And it was all easy again. Zack fell into the music, closing his eyes he leant into the mic, adding some backing vocals to Kim’s lyrics, which fit the situation so well Zack had to wonder if Kim had read his mind and come up with the lyrics on the spot. 

As Kim’s voice softens as she moves onto the next verse, Zack thinks of the things that have pushed him down: his mom’s sickness, him falling behind in classes because he had to take care of her, this school not giving a shit about anyone who doesn’t wear a varsity jacket or a cheer skirt, everything that makes him so angry. And he looks around the room, at the people that have somehow come together at this moment, and he finds himself forgetting about all of it. He focuses on being there, at that moment, until Trini plays the last chords of the song, and Kim’s voice fades out.

“You wrote that?” Trini’s voice was filled with wonder as she looked up as Kim, who had ended up back in front of her, cheeks flushed, as she grinned and nodded.

“Guys,” Jason’s excitement filled the room as his eyes seemed to shine, “We are so winning a record deal.”

 

* * *

 

 

**We need a name if we want a record deal**

[Trini, Kim, Billy, Jason]

**Kim 7:54PM**

 

                                              Green With Envy found out about us

 

                                              They think we've stolen half their set

 

                                              Not very happy

 

 

**Billy 7:57PM**

 

                                             But Principal Zordon okay'd it?

 

                                             And didn't Trini say we were just 

                                             opening for them?

                                              

 

**Trini 8:05PM**

 

                                              We  _are_ just opening for them, they're

                                              just being dramatic pissbabies

 

 

**Jason 8:05PM**

 

                                              Yeah ritas always been a bit dramatic

                                              what did tommy say?

 

 

**Zack 8:13PM**  

 

oh I forgot Kim's bf was in our rival                                                

band lmao                                                

 

they'll get over it                                                

                                                  

* * *

 

Zack knew that Rita and Tommy wouldn’t be happy. He was fully expecting hostility from them. What he wasn’t expecting was the glares of what seemed like the entire student body following him and Trini as they made their way through the hallways, heading to the basement. It didn’t really surprise him, but Trini had questions. It probably wasn’t a normal thing to have your entire school hate you because of some petty kids who have an obsession with the colour green.

Zack immediately goes to the Kat’s Lemonade machine outside the music room, which he usually gulps down before walking in. However, Trini had somehow got there first, smirking over her shoulder at the now familiar clunking sound of the machine. She pushed open the door as Zack hastily got one for himself, following the sounds of her talking to the rest of the group.

“I see everyone brought their official underworld badges!” She held her can in the air as if toasting their status as the school’s forgotten students. 

Nevertheless, everyone joined her in her toast, Jason exclaiming, “We’re subterranean and we’re proud!” they all took a sip at the same time, only to be interrupted by the groaning pipes and their laughter. 

“Alright,” said Jason, “first order of business. I know the name of the group chat is just  _ hilarious _ but we do need a band name, you know, for flyers and such.”

“Okay, okay what about Angel Groove. You know, like Grove…?” Zack suggested, only to be met with blank stares. 

Trini rolled her eyes before sitting down on the desk in between Billy and Kim, “Or we could not.”

“Well, I don’t see you coming up with any great ideas!”

Trini scoffed, “I can think of something better than that… what about, ‘The Anarchists’,” she made a motion with her hands as if imagining it on a sign.

Before Zack could say anything, Kim was shaking her head, “Nope, I refuse to be called ‘The Anarchists’ I’m sorry, that’s not happening.”

“I mean, that’s not that bad…?” Billy said from beside Trini, causing her to smile at him. He smiled back before looking over at Kim, who was making a face, “No, you’re right. I’m sorry Trini, it’s terrible. Umm, I’m gonna go get another lemonade.” 

As he shut the door behind him Zack perked up, “Oh, I remember thinking of a really great name, hang on I wrote it down…” He took a notebook out of his backpack, flipping through it more than necessary, only to land on a blank page and look up at the expectant faces, “How about, Zack.”

“He’s kidding right?”

He laughed at Trini’s dull tone, “You know, the whole one name thing! Like Bon Jovi.”

“Or P!nk,” Kim chimed in, causing Zack to gesture at her in thanks.

They were about to discuss it further when Billy suddenly rushed back in, “Back off the bash.”

Trini looked up at Billy, “What kind of band name is that?” she said, without any malice in her voice.

“I kinda love it,” Jason said, smiling encouragingly.

“No, no.” Billy put down his can of lemonade, holding up a piece of paper instead, allowing them all to clearly see the writing, “This was on the door.”

Zack took the paper from Billy’s hands, reading the words ‘Back off the bash… or else’ written in green sharpie, a feeling of dread filled him as he wondered what the ‘or else’ could be.

 

* * *

 

Later that day, Zack was sitting with Jason and Billy in the busy cafeteria, it was the first time he had stepped foot in there since it had been redone, and the advertisements for  _ Turbo Blast _ seemed to overpower any other ounce of the decorations in the room. He noticed a tall, native american boy stand up and walk away, leaving Kim sitting a couple tables away, head slumped down. Zack figured the boy must have been Tommy, if the emerald green jacket didn’t give it away, and he went over to Kim’s table to see if she was okay.

They sat in silence for a few seconds, as Kim started to mull over her words as she stared at the table before hesitantly asking, “If a guy doesn’t call for a few days, should the girl worry?” she looked up at him, “Do guys do that? I- you’re a guy right?”

Zack let out a chuckle, “Last I checked, yeah, despite what some pricks at this school would tell you.”

Kim widened her eyes, “I didn’t mean-”

He cut her off with a warm smile, “I know you didn’t, it’s okay.” Zack had been out and proud for a while, he’d heard it before.

“Still,” Kim said, “I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking and I-”

“Kim, I’m serious, I know what you meant, we’re okay.”

“Okay,” she said, smiling at him before Jason appeared at the end of the table.

“What’s up?” he dragged out the “u” sound, causing Kim to smile wider, “Am I interrupting something?” Kim started talking to him, but Zack’s eye focused on the black haired girl surrounded by her followers, who were worryingly close to the tall, unmistakable figure that was Billy Cranston.

Zack stood up as he witnessed a cheerleader take the drink that Billy had just paid for out of his hand. Billy tried to ask for it back when he saw the black haired girl tug on his arm, turning him around to talk to him. She wasn’t wearing her jacket and Zack couldn’t see her face, but he knew that it had to be Rita, he had caught the attention of the other two on his table, and Zack could have sworn he saw fire in Jason’s eyes, they all silently agreed to get over to their bandmate as soon as possible.

Kim was the first one to talk, “What’s going on?”

The cheerleader who had taken Billy’s bottle replied, “We’re just making small talk.” Zack saw as the other cheerleader put her hand on Billy’s arm, which he shrugged off, obviously uncomfortable. 

“Come on, Amanda, just give him his drink back.” Jason sounded tense, and his jaw only clenched tighter when he saw Rita put a hand on Billy’s shoulder. 

“Rita, cut it out,” Zack told her.

“Oh, are you gonna make me?” She moved forward, green eyes narrowed, only for Kim to stand in between them.

“You’re being a creep, Rita.” She scoffed before pushing Kim out of the way.

“So, if you’re not gonna make me, who’s gonna make me?”

Jason spoke up, “I am.” Rita turned her glare onto him.

“Jason Scott, our star quarterback, now disgraced. You’re gonna make me leave this little freak alone? Oh how far you have fallen.” Every inch of Jason was tensed, he couldn’t do anything, he was already on thin ice, and Rita knew it. She got right into his personal space, “How, exactly, are you gonna make me?”

Kim moved forward as if to try and stop whatever Rita was going to do, but Zack held her back, there was no point in all of them getting in trouble. Of course, in trying to hold Kim back, Zack didn’t notice that Trini had appeared, tapping Rita on the shoulder.

“I have an idea.” Rita turned away from Jason.

“And who exactly are you?”

Trini scrunched up her nose, “I’ll tell you in a second,” She held up one finger, effectively stopping Rita’s questions as she took a sip of the lemonade that had made her late to lunch in the first place. She swirled it around her mouth a couple of times, before looking directly at the now fuming girl. And promptly sprayed the drink in her face.

There were shocked gasps and laughed from all around them, but the closest one to Rita was Jason, causing her to quickly grab the front of his jacket, “You think this is funny?”

Jason frantically replied in the negative, while Zack rushed forward to try and pry the surprisingly strong girl off of him. Meanwhile, Kim went over to Billy, trying to quietly lead him to a place where there wasn’t as much shouting, which was a task perhaps more difficult than the one Zack had found himself performing.

Meanwhile, Trini was threatening everyone else around them, taking large gulps of lemonade and moving into range of both cheerleaders and soccer players. It was, quite frankly, a mess.

Thankfully, Principal Zordon had zoomed in on his Segway, breaking up the fight before it could escalate any further, asking the crowd what had happened. Of course, Rita was the first one to speak, accusing the others of threatening her just as she was about to get a refreshing bottle of  _ Turbo Blast _ , “-and the next thing you know,” her voice was calm but still louder than everyone else’s, as she held up Trini’s hand, still clutching the yellow can, “lemonade mouth over here, spits. All over me.” She lets go of Trini to gesture to her soaked shirt.

As far as band name origins go, Lemonade Mouth could have had one that was more peaceful.

  
 


End file.
